Spiffy:

Iffy:

Without getting our hands on the game, we can't tell if it's improved much over the last game.

These are trying times for fans of sports entertainment. The disastrous events surrounding the deaths of Chris Benoit and his family have put World Wrestling Entertainment in the limelight for reasons that Vince McMahon would prefer to forget. But even amidst the scandalous allegations surrounding steroids and violence, the television programming and game development must go on. The industry is trying to pick up where it left off, doing what it does best by entertaining people in their living rooms with incredible showcases of athleticism and larger-than-life storylines. The next iteration of WWE Smackdown vs. Raw will follow suit with more wrestlers, more lifelike graphics, and new gameplay mechanics to make people excited about another year of mayhem in the squared circle.

Is That John Cena? I Can't See Him.

The visuals in this year's game look phenomenal, with more realistic wrestler models and animations than in any of the previous titles. The wrestler faces are spot-on, captured down to the finest detail, not to mention the accurate portrayal of their movements, attire, and tattoos. The crowds look better in this year's game as well, although this has been a sore spot for the series' past. You'll have far more freedom to interact with your opponent in the areas outside the ring, and even have the ability to pull a signature weapon out from under the ring, using a dial-a-weapon type system.

The big gameplay mechanic that THQ is pushing with this year's Smackdown vs. Raw game is the addition of fighting styles. Each wrestler will have a primary and a secondary style from hardcore, powerhouse, showman, brawler, dirty, technical, and high-flyer. Each style has their own advantages and disadvantages, of course, which will affect the diversity and efficacy of their move sets. Dirty fighters like Ric Flair, for instance, can beg for mercy to keep an opponent distracted, setting them up for a shot to the groin. These are moves that have appeared in the previous games, but we're looking forward to finding out how the fighting styles will affect gameplay directly this year.

One of the first implementations of the styles that we were shown took us back to the glory days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship games. We were shown John Cena taking down the Undertaker, and setting him up for punishing follow-up blows from the
mounted position. This sort of street fighting maneuver is new to the series, but is in keeping with this game's more hardcore, tougher slant. This version will also, in fact, feature the ECW roster and brand as an equivalent counterpart to Raw and Smackdown, meaning you'll see your favorite ECW guys like straight-edge icon CM Punk and the beer-swilling, forehead-bleeding king of the Singapore cane, The Sandman.

This was a good intro to the new struggle submission system, which we were shown as being a big change for how chokes, sleepers, armbars and every other way you can force a tapout will be handled in this year's game. The way the system works, is that once you have a move locked in, the offensive wrestler will have to apply pressure using the analog stick. The defending wrestler then has a window of opportunity to try to break free from the hold, also with the analog stick. This was an attempt to get away from the tedium of simply mashing a button once you've been caught or when attempting to finish off an opponent.

It's still early, but there are lots of exciting things to look forward to if you're a video wrestling fan. Expect a beefy roster, plenty of match types, and the ability to take your wrestler on the path towards becoming a WWE Legend. Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 will have a greater focus on online play, which THQ feels will keep the gamers coming back for more long after the game has flown off of store shelves. We'll be following up with THQ to bring you more in the near future, so stay tuned.